The Florida State baseball team held a Friday night scrimmage at Dick Howser Stadium, one week away from Opening Day. Here are some notes from the scrimmage, which did not have official scoring.
We likely saw two of FSU's weekend starters with Cam Leiter and Jamie Arnold starting and going five innings apiece. Leiter has Friday night stuff. Arnold also looked really good. It could be Leiter on Fridays, Arnold on Saturday and Conner Whittaker or Yoel Tejeda on Sunday. Especially if you want to go righty-lefty-righty. (Purely speculation but also reading the tea leaves that FSU is trying to line up the rotation with a week out.)
Leiter will make hitters swing and miss. I had him for seven strikeouts. He also struggled with his control at times. His fastball in the first inning to DeAmez Ross ran 95-97, but Ross drew a walk. Ross swiped second (easily) and third (throw from home in dirt) on 2-2 and 3-2 pitches. Leiter then got Cam Smith swinging on strike 3, 96 mph. But a wild pitch scored Ross. James Tibbs struck out swinging on an 84 mph curveball.
Arnold did a good job of getting ground balls and strikeouts. The sophomore left-hander hit 94 mph on back-to-back pitches to get a strikeout swinging. He also pitched a 1-2-3 inning (ground out, strikeout of Titan Kamaka and flyout).
FSU has options at catcher between McGwire Holbrook, Jaxson West and Riley Jackson. In one inning, West singled and scored. He reached second on a wild pitch and then scored on a Brody Delamielleure double.
Jackson had a double as did outfielder Max Williams. Jaime Ferrer had an RBI single.
We did see a number of errors. One was ugly, with Tibbs in right field allowing the ball to go under his glove, toward the wall and allowing a run to score. Shortstop Adam Faurot had an error on a throw across his body to second.
But there was also some good defense as shortstop Cal Fisher and second baseman Alex Lodise turned a 6-4-3 double play. Lodise also showed good power in sending a deep fly ball to the track.
Cam Smith's arm is considered the best of any infielder in the ACC by Baseball America. Early on Friday, he bobbled a hard-hit ball by Lance Trippel, picked it up and fired to first for the out. Trippel might not be the quickest of runners, but still shows Smith's arm.
Smith smashed a rocket off the screen in right field but it was quickly fielded by Williams, who threw a dart to second base to get the out.
Daniel Cantu went opposite field with a three-run home run to left field off left-hander Brennen Oxford, although after the early innings the coaches went with some situations and started innings with runners on 2B and 1B.
Freshman LHP Brady Louck pitched two innings. He is about a year removed from Tommy John surgery. The coaching staff and players were excited watching Louck pitch. He got Ferrer swinging on a 93 mph fastball. Think his pitch count will be managed but encouraging.
RHP Joe Charles looked good in relief. He induced a double play and had a terrific pick-off move down to 2B. Looked like the runner was out but Link called the runner safe. (There was only a home plate umpire.)
I'm not sure how the middle infield shakes out but Smith at 3B and Cantu at 1B feel like locks right now. Definitely options up the middle, with Ross a certainty in CF. Williams and Tibbs could take corner OF spots.
Of note, there is now a 20-second pitch clock low on the scoreboard in left field. It didn't feel like any of the pitchers pushed the limit.
We'll have more stories next week leading up to Opening Day. FSU opens with Butler on Friday at 5 p.m. (live stream on ACC Network Extra).
We likely saw two of FSU's weekend starters with Cam Leiter and Jamie Arnold starting and going five innings apiece. Leiter has Friday night stuff. Arnold also looked really good. It could be Leiter on Fridays, Arnold on Saturday and Conner Whittaker or Yoel Tejeda on Sunday. Especially if you want to go righty-lefty-righty. (Purely speculation but also reading the tea leaves that FSU is trying to line up the rotation with a week out.)
Leiter will make hitters swing and miss. I had him for seven strikeouts. He also struggled with his control at times. His fastball in the first inning to DeAmez Ross ran 95-97, but Ross drew a walk. Ross swiped second (easily) and third (throw from home in dirt) on 2-2 and 3-2 pitches. Leiter then got Cam Smith swinging on strike 3, 96 mph. But a wild pitch scored Ross. James Tibbs struck out swinging on an 84 mph curveball.
Arnold did a good job of getting ground balls and strikeouts. The sophomore left-hander hit 94 mph on back-to-back pitches to get a strikeout swinging. He also pitched a 1-2-3 inning (ground out, strikeout of Titan Kamaka and flyout).
FSU has options at catcher between McGwire Holbrook, Jaxson West and Riley Jackson. In one inning, West singled and scored. He reached second on a wild pitch and then scored on a Brody Delamielleure double.
Jackson had a double as did outfielder Max Williams. Jaime Ferrer had an RBI single.
We did see a number of errors. One was ugly, with Tibbs in right field allowing the ball to go under his glove, toward the wall and allowing a run to score. Shortstop Adam Faurot had an error on a throw across his body to second.
But there was also some good defense as shortstop Cal Fisher and second baseman Alex Lodise turned a 6-4-3 double play. Lodise also showed good power in sending a deep fly ball to the track.
Cam Smith's arm is considered the best of any infielder in the ACC by Baseball America. Early on Friday, he bobbled a hard-hit ball by Lance Trippel, picked it up and fired to first for the out. Trippel might not be the quickest of runners, but still shows Smith's arm.
Smith smashed a rocket off the screen in right field but it was quickly fielded by Williams, who threw a dart to second base to get the out.
Daniel Cantu went opposite field with a three-run home run to left field off left-hander Brennen Oxford, although after the early innings the coaches went with some situations and started innings with runners on 2B and 1B.
Freshman LHP Brady Louck pitched two innings. He is about a year removed from Tommy John surgery. The coaching staff and players were excited watching Louck pitch. He got Ferrer swinging on a 93 mph fastball. Think his pitch count will be managed but encouraging.
RHP Joe Charles looked good in relief. He induced a double play and had a terrific pick-off move down to 2B. Looked like the runner was out but Link called the runner safe. (There was only a home plate umpire.)
I'm not sure how the middle infield shakes out but Smith at 3B and Cantu at 1B feel like locks right now. Definitely options up the middle, with Ross a certainty in CF. Williams and Tibbs could take corner OF spots.
Of note, there is now a 20-second pitch clock low on the scoreboard in left field. It didn't feel like any of the pitchers pushed the limit.
We'll have more stories next week leading up to Opening Day. FSU opens with Butler on Friday at 5 p.m. (live stream on ACC Network Extra).
